Track and Field Sports (Athletics) in 2005

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world outdoor championships highlighted the schedule in 2005 as four world records were set and a young American team collected a record 14 gold medals. Ethiopian runners and Russian field-event athletes dominated the season in setting records.

World Outdoor Championships

For its 10th staging, on August 6–14, the world outdoor championships returned to Helsinki, where the first edition of the meet had been held 22 years earlier. Cold rainstorms challenged athletes at times and forced the rescheduling of some finals. Justin Gatlin of the U.S., the 100-m champion at the 2004 Athens Olympics, won a sprint double in the 100 m and 200 m in Helsinki. His 9.88-sec winning time in the 100 m led silver medalist Michael Frater of Jamaica by 0.17 second, the largest margin ever in a world championships men’s 100 m. In the 200 m, Gatlin’s 20.04-sec time led the U.S. to the first 1–2–3–4 sweep by one nation in a world championships event. Gatlin and his American teammates Jeremy Wariner (men’s 400 m), Bershawn Jackson (men’s 400-m hurdles), Lauryn Williams (women’s 100 m), Allyson Felix (women’s 200 m), Michelle Perry (women’s 100-m hurdles), and Tianna Madison (women’s long jump) all won gold in the first world championships finals of their respective careers.

The IAAF passed a rule during the year that extended the period of international championships ineligibility for athletes who change citizenship in future years, but two athletes who had already switched made history in 2005. Rashid Ramzi, a former Moroccan competing for Bahrain, became the first man to win a world championships 800-m/1,500-m double. In the steeplechase Saïf Saaeed Shaheen, a former Kenyan competing for Qatar, repeated his victory of 2003. Although relations between Shaheen (formerly Stephen Cherono) and Kenyan athletics officials had been acrimonious, it was the eighth straight gold medal for Kenyan-born steeplechasers.

In the men’s 110-m hurdles, Ladji Doucouré’s win in 13.07 sec brought France’s first medal in the event. Jaouad Gharib of Morocco became the second man to defend a world championships marathon title, winning in 2 hr 10 min 11 sec. Adam Nelson of the U.S. put the shot 21.73 m (71 ft 31/2 in) to end a string of second-place finishes at the previous two world championships and two Olympic Games. Battling rain and gusty winds, Bryan Clay of the U.S. took the decathlon lead in the 400 m (the fifth event) and held it to the finish.

Nineteen-year-old Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the first women’s 5,000-m/10,000-m double in a global championships. Dibaba, whose cousin Derartu Tulu was twice Olympic champion in the 10,000 m, took the 10,000 m in only her second race at the distance. Dibaba covered the final 400 m in a stunning 58.4 sec for a final time of 30 min 24.02 sec. A week later her victory in the 5,000 m came with a world championships record of 14 min 38.59 sec that included a 58.2-sec time for the final 400 m and 28.1 sec for the last 200 m. In both events Dibaba led an Ethiopian sweep, with her sister Ejegayehu in third place. Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia won the 20-km walk in 1 hr 25 min 41 sec, cutting 41 seconds from the world record and 1 minute 11 seconds from the world championships record.

With $100,000 bonuses on offer for world records, in addition to the $60,000 prizes for all champions, Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and javelin thrower Osleidys Menéndez of Cuba took their titles by raising their own world records. Isinbayeva won the pole vault with no misses through 4.70 m (15 ft 5 in) and then had the bar raised to 5.01 m (16 ft 51/4 in), one centimetre above her world mark, and cleared the bar on her second try by an astounding margin. She lightly brushed the crossbar on her way down, but it stayed up. Menéndez launched her javelin out to 71.70 m (235 ft 3 in) on her first throw, a 16-cm (6-in) improvement on her global standard. Germany’s Christina Obergföll hurled a surprising 70.03 m (229 ft 9 in), a European record.

Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Klüft of Sweden triumphed in a close battle with France’s Eunice Barber, the 1999 champion. The win made Klüft the first successful defender of a world championships heptathlon title. She overcame an ankle injury to take the lead from Barber in the fifth event, the long jump. Barber narrowed Klüft’s lead to 18 points with a longer javelin throw, but Klüft ran faster in the 800 m to finish 63 points ahead with a final score of 6,887 points.

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